Every golf betting guide on the internet assumes you have a foursome. Four players, clean pairings, games designed for exactly that number. But golf doesn't always cooperate. A fifth shows up. Your league has 16 players on a Saturday. The charity outing has 28. And suddenly the game you've been playing for years doesn't fit.
Most games break above four players. Nassau is built for two sides. Match Play is heads-up. Split Sixes and Nine Point require exactly three. Wolf stretches to five but not six. If you've got a bigger group and you're just defaulting to a scramble because nothing else seems to work — you're leaving the best part of competitive golf on the table.
Here's what actually works when your group outgrows a foursome.
Two Different Problems
A fivesome and a 20-player outing are completely different situations, even though they both fall under "more than four." The games that solve each are different too.
The fivesome problem: Someone extra joined your group. You need a game that handles 5 players without splitting up or skipping anyone. Wolf and Skins both work here — they were designed to flex.
The large group problem: Your club event, league day, or outing has players spread across multiple foursomes. You need a format where everyone competes on the same leaderboard without playing in the same group. That's Quota — and it's not close.
For Fivesomes: Wolf
Wolf is the one game that actually gets more interesting with a fifth player. The Wolf watches four players tee off instead of three, picks a partner for a 2v3 matchup, or goes Lone Wolf against all four for double (or triple) the payout.
With five, the math changes. Lone Wolf against four opponents is riskier than against three — your score has to beat the best ball of four players, not three. But the reward scales too. That tension between risk and payout is the whole game, and five players sharpens it.
The rotation cycles every 5 holes, so each player is Wolf at least 3 times per round (holes 16-18 get assigned to players who've had fewer turns). Add Blind Wolf — declaring lone before anyone tees off — and you've got a psychological game that keeps five players locked in for all 18.
The ceiling: Wolf tops out at 5. With 6 players, the partner dynamics get unwieldy and the 2v4 lone wolf math is nearly impossible. If you've got 6 or more, move to Quota or Skins.
For Any Size Group: Skins
Skins scales to any number because the rule never changes: lowest unique score wins the skin, ties carry over. Five players, eight players, twelve players — same game.
What changes with more players is the tie frequency. In a foursome, four-way ties happen occasionally. In an eight-player group, ties happen on almost every hole because someone's bound to match someone else's score. That means fewer skins get awarded, carryovers build faster, and individual skins are worth more when someone finally wins one outright.
A $5 skin game with 8 players might award only 4-5 skins across the entire round, but those skins could each have $20-$40 worth of carryover stacked on them. The game concentrates the money into a few memorable moments.
Settlement tip for large groups: Switch from fixed-value pairwise to a pot model. Everyone buys in ($20 each in an 8-player game = $160 pot), and the pot divides equally among skins won. This avoids the headache of tracking 28 pairwise settlement calculations in an 8-player group. More about the different settlement methods.
Track Skins across any group size with Stick — carryovers, net scoring, and settlement handled automatically whether you've got 3 players or 12. Download on the App Store →
For Outings, Leagues, and Big Events: Quota
Here's where it gets real. You've got 20 players across 5 foursomes. Or 30 across 8 groups. Everyone needs to compete on the same leaderboard, but they're spread across the course playing in different groups at different paces. No other game handles this.
Quota was designed for exactly this situation. The setup:
- Every player gets a personal target: 36 minus their course handicap. A 10-handicap needs 26 points. A 20-handicap needs 16. A scratch player needs 36.
- Everyone plays their own ball, earning gross points on every hole: eagle = 8, birdie = 4, par = 2, bogey = 1, double bogey = 0.
- After the round, rank everyone by differential — how far above or below their target they finished.
That's it. The guy in Group 1 who finished +5 over his quota beats the woman in Group 4 who finished +3, regardless of their handicaps, group composition, or what anyone else in their foursome shot. The handicap is baked into the target, so the leaderboard is already adjusted.
Why Quota Is the Large Group Standard
No per-hole handicap strokes. In Nassau or Skins, you need to know which holes each player gets strokes on by stroke index — that's a nightmare to coordinate across groups. In Quota, everyone scores gross. A bogey is 1 point for everybody. No "wait, does she get a stroke here?" across eight groups.
Independent scoring. Every player's points are calculated from their own scorecard. Groups don't need to play together or even finish at the same time. Turn in your card, tally your points, plot your differential.
Fair across any handicap range. A 28-handicap who earns 14 points (differential +6) beats a scratch player who earns 38 (differential +2). That's not a quirk — it's the system working as designed. The targets are calibrated so that "playing to your handicap" means hitting your quota exactly.
Settlement Example: 8-Player Outing
Eight players, $3 per point, across two foursomes:
| Player | Handicap | Quota | Points | Differential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin | 5 | 31 | 35 | +4 |
| Sarah | 14 | 22 | 28 | +6 |
| Jason | 12 | 24 | 24 | 0 |
| Todd | 8 | 28 | 30 | +2 |
| Evan | 20 | 16 | 13 | -3 |
| Mike | 18 | 18 | 15 | -3 |
| Lisa | 25 | 11 | 16 | +5 |
| Chris | 10 | 26 | 22 | -4 |
Leaderboard: Sarah (+6), Lisa (+5), Justin (+4), Todd (+2), Jason (0), Evan (-3), Mike (-3), Chris (-4).
Sarah — a 14-handicap — won the day. She didn't need to shoot the lowest gross score. She needed to beat her own number by the most. That's what makes Quota work for mixed-ability events.
In a pot model ($20 buy-in each = $160 pot), you could pay top 3: 50% to first ($80), 30% to second ($48), 20% to third ($32). Or settle pairwise at $3 per point of differential — Sarah collects from everyone below her, Chris pays everyone above him, and every dollar balances out to zero.
The Events Angle
If you're running a weekly league or recurring outing, Quota scales from week to week too. Track cumulative differentials across a season. Run a points race. Crown a season champion. The individual-scoring, handicap-adjusted format means your 15-regular league can add a guest any week without restructuring anything.
For Sideline Action: Junk
Junk runs alongside any other game and doesn't care about group size. Five players, eight players — everyone earns dots independently for birdies, greenies, sandies, and other achievements.
In large groups, Junk is the great equalizer. Your 22-handicap might not contend on the Quota leaderboard, but they can absolutely earn a Sandy or a Barkie on any given hole. It gives everyone something to play for on every shot, regardless of where they stand in the main game.
One note: some Junk categories favor low handicappers more than others. Closest to Pin rewards ball-striking that higher handicaps don't have. Sandy and Barkie are fairer across skill levels. Choose categories that match your group's handicap range.
What Doesn't Work Above Four
A few games that shine in smaller groups don't translate:
Nassau is a two-sided bet. With five players, you'd need to run multiple parallel Nassaus (every pair has their own), which means 10 simultaneous matches in a fivesome. Possible but chaotic. In a large outing, it's a non-starter.
Split Sixes and Nine Point are three-player-only formats. The point distributions (4-2-0 and 5-3-1) only work with exactly three people. You can split a sixsome into two threesomes and run these within each group, but there's no cross-group competition.
Match Play is head-to-head by definition. A bracket tournament works for larger groups, but each match is still 1v1.
Vegas and Scotch are 2v2 team formats. They need exactly four.
The Right Game for Your Group Size
| Group Size | Best Fit | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|
| 5 players | Wolf (partner dynamics shine) | Skins (simple, universal) |
| 6 players | Skins or Quota | Two threesomes playing Split Sixes/Nine Point |
| 8-12 players | Quota (cross-group leaderboard) | Skins pot (within each foursome) |
| 12-30+ players | Quota (it's designed for this) | — |
| Any size + side action | Add Junk on top of whatever you're playing | — |
If you're new to golf betting and just got thrown into a big group, read the beginner's guide first. Otherwise, the answer for anything above 5 players is almost always Quota. It's the only format that puts everyone on the same leaderboard without requiring them to play in the same group, and the handicap-adjusted targets make it genuinely fair across any skill range.
Stick tracks Quota for groups of any size — gross points calculated per hole, running differential updated in real time, and pairwise settlement handled automatically. One person creates the round, everyone joins from their phone. Download Stick →
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best golf betting game for 5 or more players?
Quota is the best game for large groups. Every player gets a personal target based on their handicap (36 minus course handicap), earns gross points on each hole, and settles based on who beat their number by the most. There's no player cap — it works for 5 players or 50. Skins also scales well for any group size.
Can you play Wolf with 5 players?
Yes. Five-player Wolf works well — the Wolf picks one partner for a 2v3 or goes Lone Wolf against all four. The rotation cycles every 5 holes, so each player is Wolf at least 3 times. It's the upper limit though — Wolf doesn't work with 6 or more because the partner dynamics get unwieldy.
How does Quota work for a golf outing?
Every player plays their own round using gross scoring. Points are awarded per hole — eagle 8, birdie 4, par 2, bogey 1, double bogey 0. Each player's target is 36 minus their handicap. After the round, rank everyone by how far above or below their target they finished. Settle pairwise or pay from a common pot.
What golf game works for 6 players?
Quota and Skins both handle 6 players without any adaptation. For Skins, more players means more ties and bigger carryover pots. For Quota, six players just means more settlement pairs. You can also split into two threesomes and play Split Sixes or Nine Point within each group while running a Quota across all six.
How do you run a golf betting game across multiple groups?
Quota is the only common format designed for this. Each group plays independently, tracking gross scores and points. After the round, collect everyone's differentials and rank them on a single leaderboard. The handicap-adjusted targets mean a 20-handicap in Group 3 competes fairly against a 5-handicap in Group 1.
Can you play Skins with more than 4 players?
Yes. Skins works with any number of players. With 5 or more, ties happen more frequently because there are more scores that could match. That means fewer skins get won outright and carryover pots grow larger — which makes each won skin more valuable. Use pot-based settlement for large groups to avoid tracking dozens of pairwise calculations.
What is the easiest game to explain to a large group?
How do handicaps work in large group golf games?
In Quota, handicaps set each player's target — a 10-handicap needs 26 points, a 20-handicap needs 16. No per-hole stroke adjustments needed. In Skins with 5+ players, use net scoring with off-low-man handicapping so higher handicaps get strokes on the hardest holes. Without handicap adjustment in a mixed-ability group, the low handicap dominates.